Flair Bartending Lesson 97: Tin Lift Off
This week’s lesson is my favorite kind: good bottle/tin working flair. These kinds of moves are practical for while you are at work behind the bar – you can do them with nearly any bottle filled to any level.
It can take some practice to get the double tin flip to land on the bottle but don’t give up. I still miss from time to time at work and when I do, it’s sometimes play it off like I meant to do that. I’ll grab another tin and “try” again, and this time I’ll completely miss it – like throw it over my shoulder or behind my back. I’ll tell my guests that “Third time’s a charm” – and then make sure I actually land it on the third time. Remember, flair bartending is about performance. Of course, the technical maneuvers are the basis for what we do – but don’t forget to have fun and let your personality shine through. Make it a show, regardless of your skill level. If you’ve ever seen really good street performers (or buskers as they’re known outside the US), oftentimes they don’t perform juggling moves that are too incredibly difficult – but they “sell it.” They hype it up. They put on a show. They involve their crowd. They let their personality shine through and you can tell they’re having fun, which is infectious. They only perform at 60-70% of their technical skill level – they need to make sure they land the moves 100% of the times, otherwise they have a hard time “selling it.”
Also remember, with that Flat Behind the Back part of the move, it’s really more of a lift and drop than it is a throw or toss.
Stay tuned to this site and my Facebook page for some big news coming next week. In the meantime, practice, practice!
Flair Lesson 96: Inverse Pour From Tin
This week’s move is an easy one – BUT it’s also a nice little flashy way to finish pouring nearly any drink. The Around the Head Grip Change I use in the video is simply the easiest method to get into the actual Inverse Pour From Tin but feel free to play around with it and find whatever lead-in works best for you.
Make sure you have your glass set up and iced.
Kickstarter Campaign?
Question for you guys:
If I was going to do a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for new video equipment, what kind of perks or rewards would you guys want? What kind of things could I offer you that you’d be interested in that would get you to support the fund-raising campaign?
Leave a comment below (click on “Join The Discussion” at the bottom of this post if you don’t see the comment section) or feel free to email me.
Cheers,
Chris
Flair Lesson 95: Add-On to Lesson 94
This week’s flair lesson is a twist to the ending of last week’s flair lesson. We’re essentially adding a smooth little double behind the back to add some flash to the pour.
This move makes a nice combo of some previous lessons and is a great little exhibition sequence. As I explain in the video, you can finish with the Pour/Cut that we recently learned or finish with a number of different ways. Play around with it until you find a method you like and make it your own.
Lesson 94: Arm Roll Down to Double Across Body (with Pour/Cut)
Wow, that is a mouthful of a name for this move. If you’ve been following along with the lessons so far, we are synthesizing a few previous moves and adding one new one to create a nice little mini-routine. Make sure you know the Arm Roll Down and the Pour Cut already.
To put this sequence together, the new move we are learning involves throwing the bottle in a double spin across your body and catching the bottle right side up. The slightly tricky part is that the grip we are doing it with is the grip you have on the bottle/tin at the end of the Arm Roll Down. Practice just this double throw a bunch of times, then see if you can put the whole routine together.
Also, as with all moves – especially exhibition flair moves – be sure to learn the move with an empty bottle or a FlairCo bottle. Once you are comfortable with the move, then add a few ounces of water and practice it again until you can do it without spilling.
Get on it, cuz we’re going to add a new ending on to this to make another routine very soon.
